Revitalisation of 18 | Jonas Rask

After testing the X70 and in the process completely falling in love with the wider field of view that the 28mm eq presents, I thought I would grab my old XF18mm f/2 from the cupboard and give it a renaissance run. I always liked the XF18mm f/2. Mostly because of the focusing speed. Being one of the original 3 lenses designed for the X series, it was by far the fast focusing of that original triplet. But even after the introduction of newer, faster XF lenses it still remains among the fastest. Image quality of this lens has always been criticised. Indeed it is the lowest corner resolution lens within the XF eco system, but center sharpness is good. For some X-series users this fact renders the lens pretty much useless for their type of photography. For street usage where critical corner sharpness isn’t always the important thing, its a very great lens. It’s small and fast. Two features that clearly outweigh the loss of resolution near the corners. When all this is said its still a very sharp lens! All XF lenses are……